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Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Jack Green. my biggest race


The 400m hurdler remembers the Commonwealth Games in 2018 when he finished fourth in 49.18.

The Commonwealth Games started in early 2018 due to being on the Gold Coast. The year before I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in and to be honest I thought I was in shape to win the World Championships. However, in the heat of London I broke a barrier and that took away that chance.

I wasn’t funded yet, I was still training on my own, but I had a bit of a vendetta against the Commonwealth Games because it was the only championship I’d never competed in and I really wanted to do well and prove something to myself. .

I used my savings to get out about two months earlier than I needed to, just to adjust and make sure I was prepared. I was very lucky that someone I knew had an acquaintance there who let me live with them half of it for free so I could train on the Gold Coast. I gave everything, physically and emotionally, to perform in those games.

I was training myself at the time. I was very lucky to have worked with Malcolm Arnold and then Lorraine Seagrave. I always really wanted to be a coach and was very curious as to why.

Malcolm taught me how to work hard because his program works. It’s brutal and you survive it, whereas Lauren was Mr. Science and he taught me how to work smart. A mixture of both of them, and then my own philosophy and understanding of myself allowed me to train, but the problem is that there is no other voice. It becomes very difficult to know more than you already know.

I’ve been incredibly consistent when it comes to fitness, and not someone who started really slow and then suddenly took off out of nowhere. The strange thing, though, was preparing for the major championships without a season beforehand, not having that race experience.

Jack Green (Mark Shearman)

I did the Queensland Classic and another small match, on the same track, against two other people. Typically, you try to do 12-15 races before the championship. Now I was doing two of what felt like my district championships, even if the athletes I was competing against were still at a decent level.

I knew I had to be ready, so it’s also confidence. one for my training but two for the fact that everyone is in the same position at that time of year.

I was in phenomenal shape, but the thing about the Commonwealth is that some events are incredibly competitive and some aren’t. I stumbled into an event that was incredibly competitive.

If you look at the three guys who graduated before me. Kyron McMaster was number one in the world at the time, Jeffery Gibson had already won bronze at the Glasgow Commonwealth and the world finals and then we had Jahil Hyde who was a world. junior champion and one of the best. Behind me was Nicolas Bett, who is now deceased but was world champion in 2015. It was a really high standard.

The tees were stopped so it was just semi-finals and finals. It’s also a little stressful because you just show up and go for it. There’s no sense of relaxation, especially when more racing would be pretty cool at that time of year.

But I believed that I could win a medal and I never doubted it. Had a bit of a slip at barrier 10, I probably should have, but I’m incredibly proud of that performance because it was the first time I appreciated how far I’d come.

Jack Green (Mark Shearman)

When you think about my career, the many ups and downs, and the fact that four years ago I wasn’t even running, I was there fighting for a medal with the best athletes in the world.

The other thing is that I actually focused on my race for once instead of looking at other people and comparing how they hurdle. what are they doing?’

I had the best race of my career. It might not have been the fastest, but the execution, the focus on me, and then the understanding of that journey were really powerful moments for me.

Obviously I was disappointed not to win a medal, but I was happy with where I was and what I did, and I realized that I can’t stop other people from running fast. I could only force myself to run as fast as I could.

I was fourth, but it’s something I really cherished for the rest of my career. I missed out on bronze by two hundredths of a second and silver by seven hundredths, but I mentioned that race because it was quite a journey.

Little did I know it would be my last year. I put so much into that early part of the season that I pretty much lasted the rest of the year. Coming back from Australia, I flew to Qatar that week to play in the Diamond League because I wasn’t being funded. I was working part time.

READ MORE. More from our My Greatest Race series

Physically, I was just a little out of shape. But, as a Nike-sponsored athlete, I was told this is how contracts work. you have to participate in the main championships of that year, which were the European championships in August.

That meant I couldn’t close my season early. I had to be able to stay and make sure I kept my contract for that year, which meant I was pretty much hooked.

As Mark Woods said. This article first appeared in the October issue of AW magazine.

Jack Green now runs Tasr, helping athletes with mental awareness. Learn more here tasr.io:

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